


Tea

by avulle



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Crack, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2015-06-28
Packaged: 2018-04-04 07:56:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4130358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avulle/pseuds/avulle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three war heroes meet for tea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 “No, just tea for me, please.”

The waitress vanishes back inside the cafe, and the woman turns her gaze down to her shirt cuffs, plucking aimlessly at them for a moment before folding her hands in her lap, and settling back to wait.

“Oh. You’re early.” A woman settles into the seat across from her. “What a surprise.”

There is a long moment of silence in which the two women stare at one another across the candle placed in the center of the table.

“Azula.”

Azula smirks, golden eyes bright.

“ _Katara._ ”

The waitress appears at Katara’s side, carefully setting a teapot and an hourglass on the table.

“You’ll want to—”

Azula’s smirk intensifies, and Katara ignores her and does her best to continue to listen to the waitress.

“Is there anything else I can get for you two?”

“We’re waiting on one more,” Katara tells her, and the waitress smiles, bows briefly, and disappears once more.

“What have you done to my tea,” Katara mutters, leaning forward and pulling the top of the teapot.

“I’ve made it better, of course,” Azula answers haughtily, carefully arranging her bangs in her reflection in the window.

“Ah, that’s much better.”

Katara glances up from her only-barely-saved tea, and cannot tell the difference.

“It looks the same.”

Azula scowls at her.

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand, _Katara_.” She sniffs, and fluffs a bang absent-mindedly.

After a moment, she continues. “How do you like my tea?”

“It’s not your tea,” Katara responds automatically, reaching out and tugging the teapot protectively towards her.

“Oh yes it is.”

“And it’s fine, thank you,” Katara continues, ignoring her. “It would’ve have been better without your help.”

Azula hmphs, and picks up a menu. “You clearly have no appreciation for good, Fire Nation tea,” she mutters under her breath. “Not surprising for such a lowly peasant.”

Katara doesn’t deign to respond, and there is a moment of silence as Azula’s eyes track aimlessly down the menu.

“And all Fire Nation tea is _mine_ ,” she adds, her eyes flicking back up to Katara before falling to the menu once more.

“Oh God.”

Katara pours herself another cup of tea.

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand,” Azula continue, undeterred by Katara’s apparent lack of enthusiasm. “You were never a Fire Lord.”

“I beat you in that Agni Kai—”

“No you didn’t—”

“Doesn’t that make me Fire Lord?”

“It does not,” Azula glares at her across the table, setting the menu back on the table, and Katara takes a long sip of her tea.

“Why, this tea of _mine_ is delicious.”

Her teapot starts to bubble ominously, and Katara pulls it closer.

“Stop that, you’re ruining my tea.”

“First,” Azula says, leaning across the table, while Katara frowns deeply at her still-bubbling tea, “You have to be burned to lose an Agni Kai.”

She wags a finger in Katara’s face, as if Katara might forget that this is her first point, and not her seventeenth

“And second—”

“Oh, Toph, hi, I’m so happy to see you.”

Katara rises hastily from her chair, rushing over to Toph, and wrapping her in a hug.

There is a long moment, broken only by the increasingly vicious bubbling of Katara’s tea.

“Oh, stop that,” Katara hisses, waving at the teapot until it finally falls silent.

Toph squirms out of Katara’s grip.

“Hey, Sugar Queen,” she says, leaning away from Katara. “How’s it hanging.”

“We were just—”

“And second,” Azula declares, her voice echoing up and down the street, “you did not burn me. I burned Zuko. I won. It was me.”

There is another long moment of silence.

“I was the rightful Fire Lord, and therefore this tea belongs to me.”

Toph’s blind eyes shift back and forth between them before she pushes past Katara, and settles heavily into the seat beside Azula.

“Yeah, that’s great, Azula. I’m happy for you.”

Katara returns to her seat a moment later.

“Hey, where’s my tea?”

Across the table, Azula takes a long sip of tea.

Her eyes flick up to meet Katara’s.

They shift down to the teapot on the table before her, then back again.

The corners of her lips twitch, before her face clears, and with, wide, earnest eyes, she responds—

“I’m afraid I don’t understand the question.”   


	2. Chapter 2

 “The check, please.”

“Together or separate?”

“Together.”

The waitress smiles and bows briefly before vanishing back into the cafe.

The candle in the center of the table flickers briefly as Azula lays her chopsticks down, and leans back in her chair.

“Well,” she declares regally, “As much as I do so adore spending time with the two of you—”

Toph snorts and Azula kicks her chair.

“I have other things I need to do today,” she finishes, but makes no move to stand.

Toph snorts again, and Azula hooks her foot under a leg of her chair, and dumps her onto the ground.

Toph bursts into laughter, kicking her feet in the air and grinning wildly in a direction that could, possibly, contain Azula, if absolutely necessary.

Azula narrows her eyes at Toph, and kicks at her chair some more.

Toph squirms on the ground, and Azula’s chair lurches backwards.

Katara sighs into her tea.

“I can’t bring you two anywhere.”

“She started it,” they respond in unison.

Katara narrows her eyes at them from above her tea cup.

“Toph, get up off the ground, everyone’s staring.”

“Nah, it’s comfy down here.”

Azula rolls her eyes, and scooches her chair back up to the table.

“Who the hell makes chairs out of wood, anyway?” Toph huffs into the air above her, kicking her feet above her again.

“People are staring, Toph,” Katara repeats.

Toph makes a noncommittal noise, but doesn’t move.

Azula glances down at her, sneer on her face, before glancing at her reflection in the cafe window, and nudging at her bangs.

Her eyes meet Katara’s briefly, and her lips part over her teeth.

“How's my tea, Katara?”

“Oh, shut up.”

“Didn’t you have somewhere you needed to be, fire britches?” Toph calls from the ground beneath them, waving her arms above her.

Azula sniffs.

“Of course I do,” she responds, plucking her napkin off of the table before her and flicking it at Toph’s face. “But I could hardly just leave that waitress to the mercy of two peasants, now could I?”

Katara makes an exasperated noise, and Toph laughs, blowing the napkin off of her face, and onto the ground beside her.

“You gonna treat us, sparkles?”

Azula glares down at Toph.

Toph stares blankly at the sky, an expression that could be interpreted as innocent on her face.

When Azula looks away, Toph pitches a pebble at her head.

It misses, hitting the window of the cafe instead.

Azula sniffs haughtily, and looks pointedly away, straightening out the hem of her shirt.

“Well, you certainly couldn’t afford a place as nice as _this_.”

She gestures vaguely at the patio around them, and Katara chokes out a laugh before hiding her mouth behind her hand.

“I’m sorry, that was mean.”

Azula grins at her from across the table.

The waitress approaches the table, and Katara slips her purse from the back of her chair.

“I’ll—” Katara begins.

“Here,” Azula interrupts her, catching the hand of the waitress and pressing her card into it while smiling beatifically up at her.

The waitress stares at her for a moment, cheeks coloring briefly before she shakes her head and returns the smile.

“Thank you.”

She inclines her head briefly, and vanishes back into the cafe.

Katara not-very-subtly slips her card back into her purse.

“You’re never going to beat me, Katara, you’re just going to need to accept that.”

Katara returns her purse to the back of her chair, and then smiles widely at Azula.

“Really, because I seem to remember—”

“Toph, I need my napkin back.”

She reaches blindly towards Toph, making grabby motions at her.

“There was this one time—”

“Quickly Toph. This is a matter of life or death.”

Toph dutifully reaches around for Azula’s napkin, and then places it into Azula’s waiting hand.

“When was it again? I always—”

Azula flicks her napkin at Katara’s face.

“Oh, right,” Katara continues, smiling as she shakes her head to free herself from Azula’s napkin.

“It was the day of Sozin’s comet—you might be familiar with it.” She places a finger contemplatively to her lips. “You know, the day when firebenders are at their strongest?”

Azula reaches across the table, picks up Toph’s napkin, and flicks that at Katara, too.

Katara smiles, and snags it out of the air—before flinching and dropping it onto her plate.

“Oh, ew.” She looks down at it, and the back up at a smirking Azula.

“Ew, what did you do to this napkin, Toph?”

“I _used_ it.” She swings her feet for emphasis. “You know, because that’s what it’s for? Wiping gross nastiness off your face?”

Katara pushes her plate away, and turns her face towards the cafe window.

“Eww.”

Azula chuckles under her breath for a moment, before looking down at her fingers and reaching across the table for her napkin again.

Katara laughs, but doesn’t stop Azula from retaking her napkin.

“You’re disgusting,” Azula mutters under her breath.

Toph cackles into the sky.

“Oh right, yes. Sozin’s comet.”

Azula raises her gaze from where she is meticulously cleaning her fingers to glare at Katara’s smirking face.

“I can see how you wouldn’t want to—”

Azula jerks, and slips a phone from her pants pocket.

"After all—"

Azula interrupts her with a raised finger, sliding her finger across the screen of her phone before lifting it to her ear.

“Hi baby, what’s wrong?”

She pushes herself to her feet, smiles briefly at the approaching waitress, and steps over Toph’s head.

“Oh,” she continues. “Remember I said would be—”

“Trying to give me a show, Azula?” Toph yells from her position between Azula's legs on the ground.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Azula ignores her, continuing to the railing, and lifting herself over it.

Katara looks down disapprovingly at Toph.

“She’s wearing pants.”

Toph snorts. “Like that matters to me.”

Katara rolls her eyes, and nudges Toph’s chair with a toe.

“Get _up_.”

Toph heaves a massive sigh, flailing her limbs weakly.

“You do it. I am too weak, and helpless.”

Katara makes an irritated noise, but after a long moment of Toph swinging her bare feet in the air, she leans over, placing one foot on a back leg and one hand on the seat of the chair between Toph's legs, and heaves Toph back up into a sitting position.

“My _hero_.”

“You could have helped.”

“Eh,” Toph shrugs, slapping briefly at the metal table before scooping her mug off the table, and taking a long drink. “You managed.”

A beat.

“I _believe_ in you,” Toph sing-songs, turning and batting her eyelashes at Katara.

“Oh, shut up.”

Toph snorts into her latte, then mutters—

“Stupid wooden chairs, who would even come up with—”

“As lovely as this has been,” Azula says, appearing between them, and scooping the check from the table, and dropping it before her. “I really do need to go.”

“What happened?”

Azula straightens, and slips her wallet back into her jeans.

“Mai and Ty Lee are fighting again.”

“Again?”

Toph snorts, and Azula elbows her.

“Have they burned anything down yet?”

Azula closes the book, and tucks the pen carefully inside.

“Not _yet_.” She shrugs, taking a step back. “Kim’s getting a little stressed.”

Azula raises her hand in good bye, and Katara and Toph mirror her.

She stops at the railing, turning back one last time, before lifting herself over the railing, disappearing into the crowd.


	3. Chapter 3

 “A latte, please. As much espresso as their willing to put in it.”

The waiter turns to leave, but Toph catches his hand at the last minute.

“Sorry, but is there a chick here with, like long hair, um—” she pauses, blind eyes drifting up and to the right, “I think it’s, um, black?” she continues haltingly. “And her skin should probably be, uh—really pale, probably, unless she’s been tanning and I haven’t noticed.”

Another pause.

“And her eyes should be—uh—yellow, I think.”

“My eyes are golden, actually.”

Azula slides into a seat across from her, and Toph releases the waiter’s hand.

“That’s the same thing.”

“It’s not the same thing.”

The waiter looks awkwardly between them.

“Iced water for me, please.”

He vanishes into the kitchen.

“It’s totally the same thing.”

“You wouldn’t even know.”

Toph snorts, and grasps blindly about the table for her water glass, but comes up empty.

“You stole my water.”

“I stole your water.”

Toph falls back into her chair with an irritated sigh.

“At least I didn’t call it piss color.”

“You don’t even know what that looks like.”

“I know it’s the shitty kind of yellow.”

Azula huffs.

“My eyes are—”

“Yes, royal something dragon something something something.”

Azula returns Toph’s cup of water to the table.

“Here.”

Toph picks it up, but finds it empty.

“You drank all my water.”

“I drank all your water.”

“You’re literally the worst kind of person.”

“I’ve been called worse.”

Toph puts the glass back on the table.

“And the royal family is descended from dragons—”

“Oh no, please no—”

“Who were in turn said to be descended from Agni himself.”

Toph slumps further in her chair.

“Would you call Agni piss colored, Toph?”

A beat.

“Would you?”

The waiter appears at the table once more, setting a glass of water before Azula and refilling Toph’s glass.

“Thank you.”

“Of course.”

He vanishes back into the kitchen again.

“Yes,” Toph finally answers.

Azula makes an exasperated noise.

“Stupid—Earth—peasant,” Azula grumbles into her water. “No—respect—for—” she is cut off by the water she pours into her mouth.

“How long were you here?”

“Shouldn’t you know? Isn’t that why you walk around with your nasty little feet exposed, all the time?”

Toph picks up her glass just as Azula reaches for it.

“Yeah, well you try and see with your feet through two inches of hardwood, tell me how you like it.”

She takes a deep sip.

“I’m sure I would be perfect at it, and excel in every way.”

“Sorry I’m late.”

Katara takes as seat between them.

“There was a terrible traffic jam on 33rd.”

“Oh yes,” Toph immediately responds. “I know all about those traffic jams.”

There’s a long pause in which the table is silent.

“That’s me,” Toph adds helpfully. “The knower of traffic jams.”

Another pause.

“It’s a joke. It’s funny because I’m blind.”

No one laughs.

“And therefore can’t drive,” she mutters into her water.

The waiter arrives with Toph’s latte.

“How many shots did they fit in?”

“At least three, ma’am.”

He turns to Katara.

“Jasmine tea, please.”

He vanishes back into the kitchen.

Toph slurps loudly at her latte.

“Ahh,” she sighs contentedly. “That’s the stuff.”

She slurps again.

“You shouldn’t even have to go through 33rd,” Azula finally responds.

“I had to go to the vet,” Katara explains half-heartedly.

“Oh did Sokka get sick?” Toph asks over the top of her humorously large mug.

“I didn’t name my dog Sokka.”

“ _I_ named your dog Sokka.”

“Atka is a _girl dog_.”

“I feel to see how that’s relevant at all. Sokka always looked very pretty in a dress.”

“How would you know?” Azula interrupts.

“Suki told me, of course.”

“Atka was very dirty,” Katara interrupts. “There is a groomer in the vets office.”

There is a long moment of silence.

“She will hopefully be clean for longer than a day, this time.”

“Sokka did always like getting dirty.”

Katara kicks Toph’s chair.

Toph kicks Katara’s chair back.

Katara’s chair almost topples over.

“ _Toph_.”

“Sorry,” Toph apologizes halfheartedly, bring her mug to her lips again. “Azula, did you steal my water again?”

“No,” Azula immediately responds, gesturing at the empty glass placed before Toph on the table.

“You’re a dirty liar.”

Azula smiles beatifically, one hand raising to nudge her hair back into place.

“Why, thank you for noticing.”


End file.
